Ivonne Kinser, VP of Marketing + Innovation -- Avocados from Mexico

In this episode of YouShouldTalkTo, Ivonne Kinser, the VP of Marketing and Innovation at Avocados From Mexico, explains why the Metaverse doesn't work for all brands and gets into the differences between the culture of a brand and the culture of an agency and their perspectives. Ivonne and our host Daniel Weiner discuss the importance of agencies and how you can successfully choose the right ones and work with them.Guest-at-a-Glance💡 Name: Ivonne Kinser, VP of Marketing and Innovation at Avocados From Mexico.💡 Noteworthy: Throughout her career, Ivonne has played leadership roles in multiple corporations representing multibillion-dollar brands, as well as in top advertising agencies such as Lintas, McCann Erickson Worldwide, and The Richards Group, working with well-known brands in almost every category. In 2014, she joined Avocados From Mexico as the head of Digital Marketing, and in seven years, she built the organization's digital practice, which became one of the most successful digital groups in terms of performance and innovation. In 2022, Ivonne became the first Latina to be awarded the American Marketing Association's highest honor bestowed upon a deserving recipient, the Lifetime Achievement Award. She has also been included in the list of "100 Most Influential Latinas in the U.S." in 2021 and 2022. 💡 Where to find Ivonne: LinkedIn l WebsiteKey Insights⚡ The Metaverse is not for everyone and every brand. Recently, the number of startups and established companies working on building products around the Metaverse has been growing. The Metaverse is a virtual world, a vision of how the next internet generation will work. It's a trend, but while some see it as the next big technological breakthrough, others aren't impressed. Ivonne says the Metaverse works for some brands but not all. "You have one shot and that sort of thing. If you go and you do it right, you'll have great results; or you will burn the brand in the eyes of the consumers that may have a bad experience. And honestly, I have no doubt that we're going to get there. If we have the same conversation in maybe three years, the situation will be a lot different, but right now, I don't think the hardware is there to provide the experience that we want to provide to our consumers. There are exceptions; there are some brands that are doing it really well, but it's not a majority."⚡ Agencies don't have visibility into all the areas of business. More and more brands are working with smaller independent agencies specializing in one or two services because hardly any full-service agency can do everything really well. According to Ivonne, it's hard to find an agency that can have visibility over all the areas of the business as someone has on the brand side. "Agencies are missing one capability that perhaps is at the strategic level. When a group of people at the part, whatever you want it to be, can look at the business of the brand and look at all the possibilities, and then identify the problem, identify the ways to get to that solution, and then assemble that team of expertise within the agency."⚡ Ivonne says there's a lot to learn about digital integration from vendors and agencies, so she always devotes time to those who offer technology that is a strong driver of anything and those who understand brand challenges and provide a solution for a specific problem. "One of the things that makes a brand successful in this space — digital technology integration — is just gathering the knowledge from the players that are building those capabilities in the industry. So, I gain as much as they gain because I'm learning from them.